World Cup Update June 13: What You Need to Know

It’s a better place to be than England and you are almost certainly feeling more upbeat than England goalkeeper Robert Green. At least the Indian newspapers don’t say this about you: “Curses! New keeper cock-up as Green gifts Yanks a point,” (The Sun) or, “It’s not easy being Green” (The Mirror.)

The most important thing you need to know from the five games so far in the FIFA World Cup 2010, which started Friday in South Africa, is that England already is on the path to disappointment.

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Otherwise, a quick summary: In beating Nigeria 1-0 Saturday, Argentina looked OK but not great — except for Diego Maradona’s shiny gray suit, which looked awful. South Africa played to a plucky 1-1 draw in the opening game Friday against Mexico. The only game you need to care about today is between Germany and Australia at midnight. And the only major talking point outside of the action is how much background noise there is in every game that makes it sound like your TV speakers have given out but really comes from crowd hooters called vuvuzelas.

Oh, if you want an Asian angle, South Korea added to the nation of Greece’s many woes with a 2-0 victory Saturday. (France vs Uruguay was a missable scoreless draw.)

But back to England and its game against the U.S. on Saturday night.

In terms of football clashes – even if you don’t care who wins this one or even if you’d ideally like to see them both lose – this was the biggest game so far from a cultural rivalry perspective.

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Soccer fans watch the U.S. vs. England World Cup match in a pub on Saturday in New York City.

Nowhere can the U.S. be frowned upon more as a footballing nation than in England. Yet the U.S. has climbed the FIFA rankings in recent years, to 14th in May compared with England’s eighth. Indeed, more Americans have bought tickets to this World Cup than from any other single nation, according to ESPN’s broadcast of last night’s game.

About the only thing Indian about the game were the slightly surprising Mahindra Satyam advertisements that kept popping up around the sides of the field. But it is a game that will have been closely followed in India, given the popularity of the English Premiership and India’s love-hate relationship with the U.S.

In case you missed it, England got off to the perfect start, with Captain Steven Gerrard scoring a delicate goal with the outside of his right boot after only 4 minutes. The derision, even from the English-accented commentator, for America’s prospects at that point was considerable. And Fabio Capello, the England manager, and David Beckham, English football idol, looked stylishly confident on the sidelines in matching grey suits with a gray shirt and a dark tie. All seemed to be well and the huge weight of expectations on the English shoulders appeared lightly carried.

And then England turned the game into the perfect start for England, as in: the start that perfectly sits with their record of underachievement in the World Cup in the past 40 years.

It started with this. In the 40th minute, the U.S.’s Clint Dempsey rolled a soft shot toward Mr. Green, the England goalkeeper, from outside the penalty area.

Earlier in the game, Mr. Green had received a similarly easy-to-handle shot by bending down on one knee and picking up the ball, prompting the commentator to say, “He’d be happy to handle those all night,” because they are so easy for world-class keepers to scoop up.

That remark appears to have been a jinx, however. Because the next time a similar ball came his way, courtesy of Mr. Dempsey, Mr. Green bent to one knee and reached out both hands only to watch the ball bounce off his right hand and trickle into the net as he sprawled uselessly after it.

In case Mr. Green wasn’t feeling bad enough and in case it wasn’t sufficiently obvious how horrendous an error he had committed, the commentator chimed in with: “That was a desperate mistake by Robert Green who beats the ground in despair.”

It was the worst England goalkeeping fiasco since former keeper Paul Robinson let a back pass bounce over his kicking foot against Croatia in 2006. (YouTube it, it’s pretty funny.) And it set the score at 1-1.

Both sides had their chances to win the game but not too far into the second half it started its inexorable grind down to a draw. That’s not the worst start for either team. “The most important thing is not to lose,” Mr. Gerrard said by way of consoling himself afterward.

But it was a draw that will have been well-received in America but will send England into a fit of national navel-gazing that can only be ended by a convincing victory – and redemption for the keeper — in the team’s next match.

Please let us know what you think of the World Cup so far in the Comments section.

CORRECTIONS & AMPLIFICATIONS: England’s former goalkeeper is Paul Robinson. An earlier version of this post incorrectly gave his name as Robertson.

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